Reel Pop

The Danny Diaries

Much as I hate to admit it, I love Danny Bonaduce. His VH1 reality series "Breaking Bonaduce" was a masterpiece in the unscripted TV canon. Plus, his current morning radio gig in the Los Angeles market with Adam Carolla on 97.1 FM keeps me from craving Howard Stern on satellite radio.

But alas I cannot recommend his new animated series from CBS Mobile, "Danny Bonaduce: Life Coach," which produces new episodes every two weeks on CBS.com, the network's wireless partners and the jillion different sites in the CBS Audience Network. The premise had promise: Given Bonaduce's well-documented troubles with the law, drugs and the rest of humanity, why not make him counsel the treasure trove of celebrities who seem to be following in his footsteps?

Pointedly satirical, nonsensical and scatological," "Coach" feels like a castoff from Heavy.com. The jokes are obvious, and don't have the zing of a show that goes after the same humor, Comedy Central's "Drawn Together." There's too much time devoted to pointless ancillary characters like Catchphrase the Cat and a mysterious conch shell (don't ask).

I want so much more from Il Duce, whose Marlboro-laced voice is perfect for animation. I dig the fact that he is in on the joke that he IS a joke. But maybe he doesn't translate well into animation given he is practically a cartoon in real life.

This post submitted by the confessional deputy editor of THR, Andrew Wallenstein

Headzup

In the course of watching amateur uploads for the CNN/YouTube presidential debate on July 23, I've run across several videos by semi-professional comedy groups. Below, a video from Headzup, a Jib Jab-esque group which makes 25-second political vids meant for cell phone distribution.

The iPhone's video problem

Hesitant to add even the lightest feather upon the press-heavy midden heap of iPhone coverage, I'm softly pointing to Mossberg's iPhone FAQs, which includes this factlet about watching video on your shiny new prosthetic:

If the iPhone’s Web browser is so good, why can’t it play video on Web sites I visit?

At launch, the iPhone version of the Safari browser is missing some plug-ins needed for playing common types of Web videos. The most important of these is the plug-in for Adobe’s Flash technology. Apple says it plans to add that plug-in through an early software update, which I am guessing will occur within the next couple of months. However, a separate program included on the iPhone can play a limited selection of videos from YouTube, and the phone can play videos you purchase from Apple’s iTunes store, and certain videos you create yourself.

Hollywood <3's the iPhone

"Filmmakers are not going to be happy having their films downloaded to cellphones with poor quality," Ms. Peters said. "That’s the beauty of the iPhone. It’s simple and it looks good. Half the people who have these fancy cellphones don’t know how to use them.”

Vodafone, Nokia team up with YouTube

YouTube announced two mobile partnerships today. Vodafone in the UK will allow users to view video clips. Nokia will do the same in the US, but only on N-series phones.

Web Video Sites Need to Partner with Wireless Providers

Just as you're getting used to the idea of Web video, along comes video on cell phones. Much maligned in the past for poor quality and shoddy service, mobile video is where the money will be in the near future, especially as the handheld market continues to grow both here and abroad. This year alone, about 5.7M people will watch videos on their cellphones, up from less than 2M last year, according to the Yankee Group.

The idea of video on cell phones got another boost earlier this week, when the Wall Street Journal revealed that YouTube was in talks with Verizon to bring user-generated content to mobile devices.

And today, the WSJ has another report on mobile, this time explaining how mobile carriers control access to Web video.

In theory, YouTube partnering with a carrier sounds like a good idea, although I wonder if mobile access would be limited to just Verizon. After all, most of the carriers are working on creating their own content -- would YouTube content compete, or be complementary?

Let's just hope efforts to create a "YouTube phone" don't meet with the same fate as efforts to create an "iPod phone."

YouTube Going Mobile. Eventually.

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said at an advertising conference in New York this week that he hopes YouTube will have a mobile offering by the end of 2007.

Katie Fehrenbacker at GigaOm says the company has plenty of options, considering that carriers would be happy since any YouTube app would drive a schload of data traffic.